Fayetteville to distribute indoor recycling bins to five apartment complexes

It has been a busy Earth Day week for the city’s Recycling and Trash Collection Division.

The department on Monday installed nine new recycling cans on the Fayetteville square. Today, department staff are set to debut a new program designed to encourage recycling at apartment complexes around town.

City workers and volunteers will distribute indoor recycling bins to residents at North Creekside Apartments from 1-6 p.m. Thursday. The new six-gallon bins were purchased with a $30,000 grant the department received from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality this year.

The hope is that the bins will make apartment recycling more convenient, and to educate residents on what types of materials the city can accept.

Bins will also be distributed at four other participating complexes in the coming months, including Hill Place, The Cliffs, The Links, and Maple Manor. Large outdoor receptacles are already in place at all five complexes.

Brian Pugh, the city’s waste reduction coordinator, said once the bins are distributed, each complex will take on the responsibility of making sure residents return them when they move out. If they aren’t returned, the complexes will purchase new bins from the city using funds from their tenants’ security deposits.

Pugh said he hopes to eventually expand the program to more apartment communities. In the meantime, he wanted to remind apartment residents about the Marion Orton recycling drop-off center that opened in September at 735 W. North St. near a large concentration of Fayetteville complexes.

“It’s right in the midst of a high concentration of apartment complexes,” he said. “One of our big goals is to continue to try and educate those residents in that area about the (Marion Orton) facility.”

Pugh also said efforts to collect recyclables in the city’s downtown entertainment district are going well. In all, 36 bars and restaurants are participating in the program, and are recycling about 25 tons of glass per week.

All of the recent work on the recycling front in Fayetteville is part of a City Council-stated goal to divert 80 percent of the city’s trash from landfills by 2025.

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